Hughes Family: February 11, 2013 – February 24, 2013

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Cam

Okay, here’s a quick recap of some our adventures in the past couple of week. I hope one day our kids read this. I hope one day someone reads this. People need to know where we ate.

Fran and I try to have at least one date a month (usually we have more). We really enjoy Thai House in Lehi. The center picture is green curry. I don’t know how to explain it, but it tastes green. And green is delicious. I honestly can’t remember what we did after we ate- it must have rocked so hard that it jarred the memory loose.

For the past few weeks I’ve been looking for a handgun (more on that in another post) and my search took me to Cabela’s. This wouldn’t have been a big deal but it was Saturday and I had all four of our kids. Not my best idea in retrospect. It was literally too busy to shop (luckily they didn’t have what I was looking for) so we walked through the animal displays and aquarium instead.

Fran decided that the kids should have cubbies for their toys so off we went to Ikea. Each of the boys got a 2×2 unit and the girls share a 4×2. Gabe, who is the neatest of our children, seemed quite excited about organizing his toys. I think the other two responded positively as well. Sadly, if history is any indicator I would guess that the sheleves- if the shelves are still intact – do not look like they did on that beautiful first day.

On Valentine’s Day Fran dressed up the kids in cute shirts, made them heart shaped waffles for breakfast and even let them eat some of their Valentine’s Day candy!

For Valentine’s Day dinner Fran prepared a raclette (the plate has a misting of heart candies) and served us fancy chocolate covered strawberries. Then the kids are more candy while Fran cried. And let me just say for the record that I love Fran. She is a wonderful wife, fantastic mother and my best friend. She makes me truly happy and there is no one on earth I would rather have by my side as we journey through this life.

Fran and Claire went to a BYU ballet production of Sleeping Beauty (once again, I wisely opted to stay home and hold down the fort). Fran’s report went something like “There were a couple of really good dancers and a bunch of so-so dancers. If it had only been an hour it would have been perfect… but it was three.” Culture has a price.

What do you do with snow, besides curing it’s existence? You sled. The kids got together with their cousins and did a few downhill runs in Mapleton. I hear it was crazy. Fran snapped a shot of the sun halo earlier this month while they were sledding.

Another trip to the aquarium (seems like they go there a lot).

A couple weeks ago my treadmill blew up (really). I was joggling along and sparks started flying out of the motor and the belt seized. I’m going to get it fixed, but in the meantime I opted to get a new S77 model. Comparing this model to the old one I have concluded that 6mph is not necessarily 6mph. I’m excited to get back on track (ah, it is a pun!).

And then we went out again. Thanksgiving Point sandwiches, quiche, salad and a few desserts later we were ready to cry our eyes out while we watches Les Miserables. Yes, I look annoyed in this picture. But that was after Fran took about twenty pictures of me and our food. I returned the favor but all I could elicit was amusement.

We capped off last week with a double birthday party (for James & Nelly) down in Mapleton. By the time we finished singing “Happy Birthday” in English and French the candles had burned down to tiny nubs and a skeleton was clawing his way out of the cake.

And this video? I don’t know, I just thought it was really beautiful so I wanted to share it.

Hughes Family: January 26, 2012 – February 10th-ish 2013

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Cam

They say time flies when you’re having fun. I must have been having a ton of fun these past few weeks. I’ve certainly had some fun… I read a few books, worked on my car a bit and we went snowmobiling. But I’ve also spent a lot of this winter sick- seems like a week on and a week off (that’s not fun). And work has taken more of my time up these days (in a good way, but I still wouldn’t call it fun). Here’s some Hughes family highlights.

A few weeks ago we went up to Daniel’s Summit with some of our friends (both sets of Browns and the Sabins). The cabin we stayed at was fantastic. It was fully furnished, decorated and much larger than we had expected. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a nice place to stay in Heber .

On Saturday we rented snowmobiles and hit the Daniel’s Summit trails. Here are a few of the groupies (I don’t have a good shot of the Sabins, but you can get their trip take here).

The morning weather was excellent and skirting along the trails was a blast. Many exciting looking hills beckoned and resulted in a fair amount of stranded snowmobiles. Luckily there were plenty of people in our group to help dig, push and swear the snowmobiles back to safety. Near the end of the day it began to snow and I realized that it’s probably time to invest in “real” recreational winter clothing. So cold.

The evenings consisted of card games, (Sabotage, Bang and Uno with a punishing twist), casual conversations and a massive pillow fight. We ate most of our meals at the Daniel’s Summit restaurant (supplemented with snacks) but on our last night the Sabins treated us all to a delicious meal at the Spin Cafe in Heber (thanks!).

I’m pretty sure everyone had a fun time. These little getaways are something we used to do more frequently and I’m hopeful we can make them a January tradition again.

The adults weren’t the only ones playing in the snow though. Fran has been taking Mike and Claire to skiing lessons for the last couple of years. It was my intent to join them once they had caught up to my skill level. Sadly, I think that ship may have sailed. Next year I’m going to get my own lessons and then hit the slopes with them a few times.

Every time I shovel our driveway I end up with these huge snow mounds. As I was topping off a particularly tall pile I remembered that I used to dig snow caves when my dad would clear our driveway. One evening when I came home I was delighted to see that my kids had spent a good part of the evening hacking away the snow. Not all their tunnels and caves survived (they play pretty rough), but here’s what was left of their work.

I can’t wait for spring. I’ve gotten to drive my car a couple of times, but mostly it just sits…. and waits. Occasionally I start it up for fun when I feel like destroying the earth.

I might stretch out posting intervals to two weeks (on a regular basis) so I can better accommodate all the “fun” I’m having these days.

Hughes Family: January 14th, 2013 – January 25, 2012

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Cam

I feel like a broken record, but where does the time go? As I have mentioned in similar posts it’s too cold to actually be doing anything. I’ll start out this post with proof:

Last week our main water pipe froze. We had no water all of Saturday and part of Sunday. I’m not really sure why the pipe froze- it wasn’t as cold as it has been, and none of our neighbors were affected. Lehi City was nice enough to send someone out on Saturday to check the water meter (sometimes they freeze), but that wasn’t the problem. I ran a hair dryer on the water pipe going out of the house pretty much all day. We gathered snow and melted it for use in the toilets and drank bottled water. We are survivors.

The kids and I spent an afternoon playing with paper. Don’t underestimate the amount of enjoyment that can be derived from plant fiber and scissors!

Fran took the kids to the Aquarium (and in case you haven’t visited before, it’s very cool!). This is the first time that Chloe sort of knew what was going on- you can see that look of wonder etched onto her face here.

Fran and Claire went to see a BYU production of The Phantom of the Opera (Mike wasn’t interested and kids under six weren’t allowed so I stayed home… but secretly felt the same way Mike did). The consensus between attendees was that it was good, but long and slow in some parts.
I went with some friends to see Arnold’s latest fiasco, Last Stand. It some ways it was classic Arnold- tons of action, over the top violence and a lot of fun. Still, Schwarzenegger is starting to show his age and his movie days may be over. I loved the ZR1 action and was happily surprised when the movie culminated in a Corvette vs. Camaro showdown in a cornfield (I missed that particular trailer).

Claire is the sweetest kid. She makes adorable little cards and cute drawings for us all the time. This past week she made a shopping bag-shaped card holder and a giant pop-up card. Some of her sweetness has rubbed off on Gabe and he also gives us cards from time to time. There is nothing better than getting hand made gifts from your kids.

I decided to try out the Nike Fuel Band. It certainly gets high marks for coolness and design, but I’m not quite sure it always knows what’s going on. Time will tell and at the very least the Fuel Band will be a fun way to keep track of my activity levels.

Hughes Family: January 1st, 2013 – January 13th, 2013

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Cam

The past couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful for us (which isn’t a bad thing). School started back up and the weather has been frigid so our activity opportunities have been limited. It’s almost relaxing (well, for me anyway).

Nothing like a hike up the “Y” on the first day of the year! Especially in the snow. Not me though- I decided to sleep instead.

Our kids are so cute. They spent almost all of Thursday afternoon/evening creating a museum. They started drawing money a few days ago and decided to put in on display. The had a “grand opening” at 7:00pm and Mike read a speech (written by Claire). Then they cut a piece of thread strung across the doorway and invited us in. The presented all the different kinds of money they had drawn (here’s an unencumbered view of the wall). While I don’t dig tape and thumbtacks on the wall I don’t think I would want to stifle this kind of creativity.

I finally got my car back! This whole project has taken much longer than I thought it would, and there’s still a lot of work to do. The weather has been so frigid that I got to drive the car home, take it for one quick spin and then had to park it in the garage. I’m really looking forward to spring.

Speaking of weather… the iPhone hasn’t been doing much to help me this winter. It seems like forecasts frequently change (even hour to hour) and a lot of the time it’s just plain wrong. The other day I woke up and checked the weather. Partly sunny! But when I looked out the window what did I see? Snow. It was overcast and snowy. And the rest of the week was pretty much the same.
This is one of the coldest winters that I can remember. Our gutters keep freezing and then when it melts a bit they overflow onto our driveway where they freeze again. This giant ice patch (right pic) makes it really hard to get into our garage. And it doesn’t help that our driveway is perpetually covered with snow either. Too cold.

We’re making progress on the office little by little. We ordered some wall art off Overstock. These particular pieces are actually pretty cool. It’s an image printed on sanded metal. The sanding causes different kind of reflections on the metallic surface.
Aesthetics aside, hanging this thing was a nightmare. It’s seven individual pieces. They each have two brackets welded on the back (first pic). They are not centered (left right, top or bottom), they are not accessible in any way from the front (for marking purposes) and it’s not possible to accurately measure where to make the holes in advance. Good luck! Hanging this took over an hour and my pieces didn’t end up spaced perfectly, but I’m pretending that’s part of the art.

After a brief hiatus our tradition of eating out each weekend has resumed. Sometimes we skip our outings to reallocate money to cover something the kids have damaged. Most recently we skipped a few weeks to pay for a new mini van battery (the kids often leave the mini van lights on which drains the battery and, over time, ruins it). This past Saturday we went to dinner at Asian Buffet (remember, the shrimp?!).
I’m trying to do a bit of dieting, but the siren song of the shrimp was just too much. More on my progress (or lack thereof) later this year.

Does anyone have anything to add? Hmm… maybe next time I’ll ask the kids if they want to write anything for the blog. That could be amusing.

Hughes Family: December 17th, 2012 – December 31st 2012

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Cam

We have survived 2012! At times it seemed like we weren’t going to make it… And yes, I’m half kidding when I say that, but parts of this year were rough. As I have mentioned in the past the holidays are always extra stressful but we found time for a little relaxation and celebration (as we seem to every year). Here’s a quick (really quick) rundown of the last couple of weeks.

We started off the holidays with some apple cider. That got us all in the mood to party.

We headed north on Christmas Eve for dinner with the Lotts and Watsons. I wish I had some better pictures of the meal- it was incredible. That log looking thing on the right there is sort of like a cake (in case you were curious).

Here we all are together. One big happy and very full (in a physical sense) family. Some of us look better than others. Some of us intend to fix that in 2013 so they aren’t the one who look weird in net year’s pictures.

We ended up with a white Christmas! Before I got up the family was outside playing in the snow.

I worked my way out of bed about 9:30 (a wonderful gift from my family- sleeping in on Christmas). We drank hot chocolate and ate croissants and then…

…the chaos began. Actually it wasn’t too chaotic. We tried to keep things low-key and more organized this year. Here are a few pics of the kids with their gifts.

The kids made Fran and I adorable coupons! Some of them were good for “100x”! I think it will be hard to redeem them…

I hope our kids look back with fondness on our Christmases (I have a lot of happy Christmas memories from my childhood). And maybe they could even take a moment to reflect on what Christmas is really about.

Christmas dinner was spent with the other Hughes family. I love Christmas meals! (I gained nearly ten pounds in the last two weeks).

There has been a lot of snow lately (not just on Christmas), so naturally the kids did some sledding.

And I spent a lot of time shoveling the snow off our driveway.That’s a a big job, in case you’re curious. But this right here- that’s a photograph of satisfaction. It snowed another six inches about an hour later. I was not able to get a good shot of the disappointment.

Fran got the kids a new playset for Christmas and it was installed a few days after Christmas With four kids she figured it was time for something a little bigger and a little sturdier. I think it looks nice (I haven’t actually seen it in person yet).

On Friday we went to see rise of the Guardians. It was a cute twist on classic holiday icons. It’s not quite a Christmas movie though.

And Monday we hosted our annual New Year’s Eve party. Here are the party goers (we have lost some people over the years and, for the record, we miss them).

These days we start the party late and all indulge in ice cream sundaes and witty banter. We play games, we reminisce, we share our fictional resolutions and have a good time (even the kids).

I told you it was going to be quick. I’m a bit behind, so I had to cut some corners (I feel really guilty about it… not so guilty that it will move me to any kind of action though). That’s it for 2012! I’m sure there will be some spillover in a few upcoming posts, but it’s over. Gone. Done. No going back now. Bring on 2013.

Hughes Family: December 10th, 2012 – December 16th, 2012

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Cam

Sickness has overwhelmed our family these past couple of weeks. Fran almost never gets sick, and she’s had something plaguing her for nearly two weeks. I had something a few weeks ago that lasted a couple of days. I thought I was going to get off lucky, but sadly that was not to be. I woke up one night and my little girl’s nose was pressed firmly into my mouth. As I sleepily wiped the snot off my lips I recall thinking “That’s not good.” Shortly thereafter I got one of the worst colds I can remember. It’s been about ten days and I’m finally starting to feel better. And that’s about it- we have spent the last two weeks fighting off winter maladies.

Well, despite being overcome with various infections we did manage to do one thing last week. The built our graham cracker houses. Each house is painstakingly assembled by hand from square crackers. Only the finest royal frosting and candies are incorporated into the designs.

This year Fran and I worked on a church together and surrounded it by four smaller houses (one for each kid). Not all of the candy made it onto the houses. The kids ate so much junk that an hour into our project they were compelled to rip off their clothes and start bouncing off the walls (literally).

We still have to add a sugar lake, but it’s a cute start. I dig our little villages. Maybe next year we will try gingerbread again.

Hughes Family: December 3rd, 2012 – December 9th, 2012

Posted on December 10, 2012 by Cam

On Monday we celebrated Mike’s Birthday again (to be fair, that was his actual birthday). He requested two chile verde burritos from Mi Ranchito (he happily ate them for several meals). Fran made a sweet potato cake but the platter it was sitting on in the oven shattered (from the heat) embedding the cake with tiny glass fragments. It was also hard to get the cake off the broken platter and it fell… a couple of time. But we popped a “9” candle on top of it and sang anyway. Then it was on to the presents. I would venture to say that Mike has very nice parents and extend family.

One funny thing that I wasn’t actually going to share: One of Mike’s presents was a Lego Batman figure (kind of like a robot). He put it together and seemed pretty pleased. I told him that I thought it was really cool. He looked at me and said, “You want to buy it?” I asked, “Why do you want to sell me your birthday present?” “Because,” he replied, “I’m all about the money.” Oh dear.

During the week Cam attended a documentary premier about the Garifuna people. It was filmed and edited by Ben Petersen, one of cam’s coworkers, while he was attending BYU. Ben did an outstanding job and you can see a trailer of his video below.

March 3, 2013. UPDATE: Ben has made his documentary available to watch on YouTube now. This is it:

One of Mike’s birthday presents was an Xbox Kinect. Now, before certain people accuse me of getting him this because it was present at a certain party… Mike had asked for a Kinect months ago, having used one at a friend’s house. I just want to say for the record: Wow, this is a cool toy. There was just nothing like this when I was growing up. We played a bit and it’s a blast (more games incoming). As per some unspecified parental guidelines somewhere I recorded my kids using the Kinect to they could laugh at themselves twenty years down the road.

And this is the year the Hughes family will not be the shame of the neighborhood. We used SilverLeaf Landscaping for our lightning needs and unhesitatingly recommend them- we are thrilled with the results. Fran picked red, white and green for the house lights. I have no idea how to take a picture of this so you get this crappy photographic abomination. But we didn’t stop with the house. White lights on the juniper trees…

…which have this nativity nestled between them. The pine tree in our front yard got done up in red with larger white bulbs. And green for the peach tree (and that’s an angel sitting next to it). Yes indeed, we are going to run these things 24/7, 365 days of the year. Yahoo!
And we finally managed to finish decorating our Christmas tree! Although it won’t really stay finished for long. I’m pretty sure there was some kind of ornament war going on this morning when I came downstairs. However, there were no survivors left to question. I look forward to the day when our tree will be left alone and we can upgrade to something nicer and decorate it with a bit more flair.

Hughes Family: November 26th, 2012 – December 2nd, 2012

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Cam

It’s two in the morning. I need to get to bed. But I really want to bust this post out. For some reason this reminds me of college. I’d often be up late at night faced with a paper deadline. My intent was always to finish it as quickly as possible; rapid mediocrity was the goal. But I could rarely pull it off… I wanted to do my best. Luckily there are no real blog deadlines. No need to fight against the sweet siren song of my pillow. I will work on this tomorrow.

[The next morning] And just like that I’m back.

Work is getting busier. We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve, but each year we get slammed harder than we expect. Of course, we’re still light years ahead of where we were just a few years ago. I used to sleep at work during the holidays!
A couple of months ago Fran moved out of the office we used to share. It’s taken awhile, but I have finally replaced her with a couch, two pictures, a shelf and a plant. Cumulatively they talk about as much as she did (which is to say when she was at work, she worked). No going back now.

On Tuesday Mike got his Wolf award! Fran is his Den Mother and I know she works hard to keep all the cubs on track. It’s possible Mike might actually enjoy the scouting program though. I wanted to attend the meeting, but I had made plans to see Skyfall with my Dad and brother (before I knew about the meeting). Overall I thought Skyfall was excellent (8/10).

Friday was the Sabin’s Christmas party (SCP). Everyone who’s anyone attends the SCP. Here’s a shot of our lovely hosts, Jason and Rachel… Jason is kind of holding her, I guess. I’m not sure really sure what’s going on. And here’s me and some of the boys. Fran isn’t going to like the picture of her I posted. I have no idea what hanging out of her mouth, but I love her.

Party goers played games, ate delicious food from Rubios and the evening culminated with the white elephant gift exchange. The gifts ranged from slightly thoughtful to comically obscene. I’m sure the full scoop will be provided by Rachel later this week. I don’t know why they do it, but a big thanks to the Sabins for another fun party.

Saturday brought another party- Mike’s ninth birthday. We rounded up a few of his friends and headed over to the Lehi Jack & Jill’s. First up: Bowling. Kids love bowling. I think for them it’s like a chance to break something over and over without getting in trouble. The kids turned out to be better bowlers than the adults (excuse: kids had bumpers). I think Fran will be okay with this picture of her. She was an excellent party coordinator.

After pizza and cake it was time for Laser Tag. I really like the Jack and Jill’s setup and it’s nice to see what you are shooting (visible beams). Once again the kids the kids beat the adults (excuse: gun issues and uneven teams). After laser tag we opened presents and returned home exhausted.

On Sunday we ate at my parent’s house (sandwiches… I love sandwiches!) and reveled in their cool nativity (I used to play with pieces from this same set when I was little). When we got home we were able to get the tree up, but the only thing that got decorated was Mike. Maybe next week… if we have any energy left.

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